


Call to Pierre

by bellejolras



Category: Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 - Malloy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, also natasha dealing with trauma, cw for implied reference to sexual assault, otherwise this all counts as pining/fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 11:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11690586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellejolras/pseuds/bellejolras
Summary: Pierre gets a call late at night from a Natasha paralyzed with anxiety who needs a ride home and a friend. Pierre can help with both.college au, about 1 year after the Anatole events





	Call to Pierre

A loud rattling buzz interrupted Pierre's concentration, and he jumped. Hadn't he put his phone on silent? It was ok though, it was late and he was close to the end of the chapter he was reading, a good enough time for a break. The phone kept buzzing, vibrating around on the desk and Pierre reached for it quickly. Who would be calling him at this hour?

It was Natasha.

He picked up the phone, trying to keep the thump of his heartbeat out of his voice. "Hey Nat, uh what's going on?"

The other side of the line was silent for a second.

"Hello?" Maybe it was a butt dial. Probably she just rolled over on her phone and called him by accident. Probably just--

And then he heard her sniffle. "Pierre," she whispered. "Can you come pick me up?"

He could hear the tears in her voice.

"Natasha are you-"

"I'm in the parking lot of the McDonalds on the way to Nikolai's." She added almost inaudibly, "near the hospital."

A shiver ran through Pierre. "I'll call an uber ok? Don't hang up, I'll be there soon."

He put the phone on speaker and grabbed his shoes, a jacket, and the fuzzy blanket folded on the end of his bed.

 

The uber arrived almost immediately and Pierre got in the car and told the driver where to go. The driver looked at him funny and Pierre started to explain he was going to picking up a friend, but the driver just shrugged and started driving.

After a few minutes, Pierre realized the phone had been quiet. "Nat are you still there?" He turned the phone off speaker and put it to his ear. "I'll be there in just a few minutes ok? Is your car ok or do you want to take the uber back?"

She breathed slowly and ragged into the phone. "No, my car is fine. Ubers are expensive and-"

"Nat I can pay for the uber, it's not a problem."

"Yeah well what will my parents say if my car gets towed?"

"Hey, shh, its fine, I just wanted to give you the choice."

"No, I know. It's fine." Her voice was still barely above a whisper.

The phone went quiet again.

 

The night was bitterly cold and Pierre was grateful for having ended up in an uber with good heating. He hoped Natasha had left her car on, or that she hadn't been waiting long before she called him.

The car pulled into the parking lot a few minutes later and Pierre got out and thanked the driver, who nodded at him and drove away as quickly as he had first arrived.

"Natasha, I'm here. Where are you?" He walked around the parking lot and then saw her car in the back. "Oh, just kidding I found you. Hang on just a sec." He hung up the phone and walked over, opening the car door for her to get out.

She shivered as she stepped out of the car, and Pierre was glad he had brought a blanket. She must not have thought to wear a jacket earlier when she left for Nikolai's. To be fair,  
it was much colder now than it had been earlier.

He wrapped the blanket around her clumsily and opened the passenger door for her to get in.

 

Once he was finally in the driver’s seat, they really looked at each other.

"Nat are you alright? It's freezing. How long were you here? It's the middle of the night."

She shook her head, saying nothing.

The keys were still in the ignition, and Pierre left the car in park but turned up the heater.

"Nat, what happened?"

She turned to him, tears welling in her eyes and stammered out, "I-I-"

He felt the prick of tears behind his own eyes and reached over to pet her hair softly. "Hey, it's ok," he said gently. "You don't need to say anything. I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

She shook her head again, and swallowed. "No, it's ok. I don't want you to worry about me." She sniffed. "I was just driving back from Nikolai's, and I went over there earlier cause I made a lot of cookies yesterday and I haven't seen him in a while, and I was so tired when I left that I went this way on accident, like on autopilot, cause I never go this way if I can help it, and suddenly I was, I was sitting at the light, right before the hospital, and I was sitting in the driver’s seat and all of a sudden I was so stressed. Anxious. And I had like a flashback," she shivered, "and then I almost hit a tree so I decided I would pull over, and then I started crying and I didn't know if I could make it home so I panicked, and then I called you." She began to cry again, the tears creeping into her voice.

He looked at her tenderly, and hoped she couldn't see he was crying behind his glasses, in the dark. "Oh, Natasha,"

She looked up at him and a laugh broke into her tears. "No, stop crying. I'm fine." She paused. "Thank you for coming though, it helps to have someone here. And I'm still too embarrassed to talk to Sonya about this much. It was all very, you know,"

Pierre nodded quickly. "No, sure. I mean, I understand. And of course I came. Why wouldn't I? That's what friends do." _And I love you,_ he thought. _I'm here for you always._

She smiled and squeezed one of his hands, then pulled down the mirror above the windshield in front of her seat and wiped at her face.

She sat back against the seat and wrapped the blanket tighter, and Pierre wiped under his glasses, took a deep breath and then said, "Are you ready to go home?"

She nodded and buckled the seatbelt. She looked out the window as they pulled out of the parking lot.

 

"You know," she said softly after a minute or two of quiet. "Anatole had a blanket like this in his car. On the backseat. It was for his dog I think, so she didn't ruin the seat. I just remember it was soft, and that it got ruined that night, and that I couldn't stand to feel anything like it for months. The blanket in the hospital was so itchy but I wouldn't let them give me a soft one because at the time even that was too similar. I was so mad that he had even ruined fuzzy blankets." Her voice was surprisingly calm and composed.

Pierre reached over and took her hand. "It's alright," he said. "I'm here."

She looked at him quickly. "I've never told anyone that," she said. "I think he told people he got rid of the blanket cause his dog peed on it." She exhaled sharply. "This one is nice though, it's warm, thank you for bringing it." _It smells like you,_ she thought. _And that comforts me._

Pierre squeezed her hand with concern. "I would have brought something else if I had known."

She shook her head again. "No, no it's alright. There's no way you would have. It doesn't bother me as much as it used to anyway."

 

They were quiet again for another few minutes, still hand in hand, until they started nearing the school.

"Do you want me to drop you off at your building? I don't mind walking back from there, I don't get too cold."

Natasha looked over at him again. "Um, would it be alright if I stayed with you actually? I don't think I can bear to explain it to Sonya tonight and it would be good not to be alone. If that's ok of course, if you need me to go back to my own room that's fi-"

"No! No that's fine, of course, I should have thought of that, do you need to get anything from your room then or are you ok?" Pierre was glad that it was dark and Natasha couldn't see him blushing.

"No, I'll be alright. Honestly I'm so exhausted I could fall asleep as I am right now if I had to. I'll text Sonya and let her know so she doesn't worry as much. Are you sure it's ok?"

He turned into the parking lot in front of his building, and pulled into a spot.

"Yeah, absolutely. I'll let you know though, it's been a minute since I cleaned my room, so I'm sorry about that in advance." He looked over at her and smiled.

She smiled back. "I'm sure it's fine, and really it doesn't matter. As long as there's space for me to sleep," she said.

"Oh, yeah, no of course. I have both beds pushed together since I live alone, so I'll clear the crap off of there and it's all yours."

Pierre turned the car off and helped Natasha out. "Let's get you upstairs before you freeze, though," he said.

 

Once they were inside, she adjusted the blanket so it hung over her shoulders. "Look, I'm a superhero!" she laughed, deliriously tired.

Pierre scoffed. "Haven't you ever seen The Incredibles?" She looked at him in confusion. "No capes!"

She laughed again, and they got into the elevator.

"See, you're lucky the blanket didn't get stuck in the door. Sorry, the _cape_."

Natasha rolled her eyes.

The elevator reached their floor and they walked down the hall to Pierre's room.

He opened the door, and Natasha started laughing again. "Pierre, I thought you said your room was messy?"

He ignored this. "The bathroom is in there," he said pointing at one of two doors on the wall. "I'll clear up out here."

 

They switched places a few minutes later.

"Pierre!" Natasha called all of a sudden.

"Hang on!"

He opened the bathroom door.

"Where are you going to sleep?"

"The floor, probably." She gave him a look. "Don't worry about it, it's really fine."

She turned back around and he closed the door again.

When he came back out, she was already on the bed.

"Pierre Bezukhov, you're not sleeping on the floor. I invited myself into your room and you have two beds shoved together. That's plenty of space."

"Natasha, I-"

She looked at him seriously. "I didn't invite myself over to be alone."

He walked slowly towards the bed. "Ok, I just don't want to do anything that would make you uncomfortable."

"You have never made me uncomfortable and I promise I will tell you if you do." The room was dark but she looked up at him. "I promise."

Hesitantly he climbed into his own bed, and laid as far from her as he reasonably could.

"Pierre," Natasha whispered. "You can be closer if you want. It's ok."

He moved over a few inches but didn't dare move closer. He could hear his own heart beating, and hoped desperately that she couldn't.

Within 5 minutes, they were both asleep.

 

He woke up the next morning vaguely disoriented and didn't realize until he reached for his glasses that his arm had been around Natasha.

The thought sent a shock through him. He shook it off, the night's events coming back to him, and he reached over to check his phone.

Shit, it was late. Thank god it was Saturday.

He gently nudged Natasha, who groaned into the pillow and rolled over into the wall.

That seemed to have woken her up, and she slowly rolled back over and sat up, groggily.

"Oh, my god, Pierre. I, I forgot where I was." She ran a hand through her messy hair and blushed pleasantly. She laughed softly. "What time is it?" She checked her phone. "Aw shit, it's pretty late, even for a Saturday. If we don't hurry, the dining hall won't even have breakfast anymore."

"Ah fuck, you know you're right." Pierre got out of the bed and started towards the bathroom. "I'm gonna brush my teeth and everything, if you want to put something else on I think Helene left some clothes in my dresser a long time ago that she never bothered to pick up. You're welcome to whatever."

He closed the bathroom door and Natasha got up and went over to the dresser. The Helene drawer had some ok stuff, but she'd rather wear--

Pierre opened the door just as she finished pulling on a worn gray sweatshirt. "Natasha?" She whirled around. That wasn't Helene's shirt, it was his. She looked so small in his giant sweatshirt with the bear printed on the front. She still had on her jeans from the day before, and the outfit was frankly adorable.

"Is it ok if I wear this?"

He laughed to himself. "Yeah, of course it is." He couldn't help but smile at her. "Bathroom's all yours."

He tried not to think about anything as he got dressed. It was a lot to take in at once. Natasha, in his bed? in his sweatshirt? because she wanted to? He felt his face flush at the thought of it all. How could it be real? He reminded himself of what had happened before any of that, that she'd called him crying and what she said in the car. This wasn't a dumb fairytale story. It was—

The bathroom door clicked opened again.

"Pierre, um,"

He turned around.

"do you think you can come with me later to talk to Sonya? I know she loves me and understands, but it's hard to talk about."

He nodded at her. "Of course I can."

She smiled at him slowly. "Thanks. First though, breakfast. Come on, I don't want to miss the waffles!"

He followed her to the door and as they walked down the hall, he smiled to himself in wonder. It wasn't a fairytale story, but maybe it could still have a happy ending.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry for writing this instead of updating my other fic lol whoops
> 
> also come hang out w me on tumblr @bellejolras !


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